Sorry if this has been covered, but I'm new around here. I've been delighted to set a couple of record times... is there any way to see whether they still stand? I can't find anyplace that lists them except as the individual quotes come up. Thanks.

You must be new around here, indeed. I believe you said your name was Roger Bannister - yes? Allow me to introduce you to Hicham El Guerrouj. He goes by the handle Bansaisequoia. ...and your records are all gone

Haha... I quite believe you, seeing his times. I just wondered if there's anyplace to look. It seems like it would be nice to see something in one's trophy room, like "You currently hold the record time for... 4 cryptograms." But I don't think there's any way to know, is there?

Thanks Chopstix, that's nice of you to say. I'm afraid that in my case it's more luck than anything else. I feel slow as molasses most of the time. I'm sure enjoying myself, though, and I'm enjoying the quotes (for the most part).

Haha... I quite believe you, seeing his times. I just wondered if there's anyplace to look. It seems like it would be nice to see something in one's trophy room, like "You currently hold the record time for... 4 cryptograms." But I don't think there's any way to know, is there?

I haven't poked around the site enough to consider myself an expert navigator, but as far as I know - no, there isn't. I did look at this month's top 100, and I see you're #7 at the moment, and that you're also batting a 100% solve rate. That's impressive. I've slogged along for a couple of years, and my all-time solve rate is now approaching 84%, and my monthly solve rates have risen to the low 90s. Congratulations on that... and if you have any tips you wish to share, we who struggle are always open to new ways of looking at these puzzles.

Thanks for the kind words, Barnabas (always appreciate a Dark Shadows reference, by the way).

I doubt I'd have any advice that isn't commonplace. And the only thing my solve rate indicates is that I've spent a ridiculous amount of time refusing to give up on a puzzle.

I always start by looking at context, especially at the beginning of the quote (and sometimes at the end, or after a punctuation mark)... it's often pretty easy to get a quick toe-hold by seeing something like:
"He who.."
or, "If you want to..."
or, "______ is the ____ of _____..."

If that fails, then I move on to scanning individual words, looking for patterns that jump out at me.

If that fails, it's going to be a long slog... looking at frequency of letters, trying various combinations, etc.

The ones that REALLY burn me are the ones where I know I've broken in and have the basic idea, but also know I might have a thing or two wrong here and there, and there remains a word or two that I just can't figure out. Usually that means I do have something wrong somewhere else, but man that's frustrating.

. . . doing these cryptograms. With every puzzle and its challenges, it feels pretty awesome to just use my brains and eyes to solve them. I will probably never set any records, but that's okay. I'm getting the puzzles and it's my brain that benefits most. If I used other stuff, it wouldn't mean nearly as much. It would kind of . . . cheapen . . . the experience if I wasn't doing it to tally on my own. Thanks for this site!